they used it as a way to hold the debt ceiling to ransom. the only leverage they have is leverage to lower their poll ratings and lower the boom on the american economy. the cbo says if you do this, you won't get unemployment under 7.5% before 2015. you could actually push this economy back into another recession and republicans who use this strategy from 2009 on wrecked the economy to try to wreck obama, weren't able to sell that to the american people in 2012. they can't sell it to the american people now. and you can't rebrand yourself as a party if you're wearing the scarlet letter of deception and economic destruction. >> that's absolutely true. karen, republicans seem to think that they've got the president in a real bind over this sequester. take a listen to this. >> that's not fair. >> democrats are exactly where the republicans were six weeks ago. look, taxes were going up by law. the only question was were you going to negotiate a good package, save as many of the bush tax cuts as you could? >> karen, they're now saying republicans